blog Bad news this morning for Melbourne commuters, with a mysterious glitch at CityLink taking down the Burnley and Domain tunnels. Traffic apparently slowed to a crawl, to howls of protest. The organisation hasn’t yet clarified what sort of computer problem it had, issuing only the following cryptic statement:

“CityLink apologises for the significant impact on Melbourne traffic that the closure of Burnley and Domain tunnels has caused. CityLink has deployed all resources possible to rectify the system issue and will advise commuters as soon as possible on the expected time for reopening. CityLink announces that all tolls incurred by customers for the duration of the event will be refunded in full. Account holders will be credited automatically. Customers who purchased Day Passes need to call 13 26 29 to process their refund.

CityLink has been affected by system issues preventing its ability to respond to incidents in the tunnel. While the roadway remains safe in its current state, should an incident occur Citylink would be compromised in its response. CityLink’s absolute focus on customer safety requires the tunnels to be closed until the issue is resolved.”

CityLink has told the AFR that “a network issue” caused the problem. Perhaps a downed router somewhere along the way? Or a datacentre outage of some kind? We don’t yet know, but if you do, you know what to do — hit up Delimiter’s anonymous tips page and let us know. It’s so goddamn anonymous that even we won’t know who you are, but it’s the perfect place to file those sensitive internal documents which you can’t find any space elsewhere for, especially if they’re marked ‘not to be distributed to the media’. We love those.

Note: The above image is a stock image — not an actual photo of traffic in Melbourne.

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1. Amit K
   Posted 03/10/2012 at 4:01 pm | Permalink | Reply

   It must have been a huawei router…..the Chinese government are starting their cyberwar against us.
   thankfully the NBN won’t be affected!

2. James
   Posted 03/10/2012 at 4:05 pm | Permalink | Reply

   “CityLink has been affected by system issues preventing its ability to respond to incidents in the tunnel..”

   This would match up with what I heard on the radio that the system that controls the fume ventilation and fire emergency equipment that is inbuilt into the tunnels was comprimised.

   Makes sense really, I wouldn’t want to have a crash and be stranded in there with nothing venting all the fumes away =/

3. seven_tech
   Posted 03/10/2012 at 4:50 pm | Permalink | Reply

   Should’ve used Linux…..

   • Renai LeMay
     Posted 03/10/2012 at 5:22 pm | Permalink | Reply

     Comment applies to all situations.

4. At large
   Posted 03/10/2012 at 6:32 pm | Permalink | Reply

   A flooded node, perhaps?

5. bob
   Posted 03/10/2012 at 8:31 pm | Permalink | Reply

   I ask why is fume ventilation and fire equipment connected to any computer system at all that could take them down, and/or why aren’t there manual backups?

   • seven_tech
     Posted 03/10/2012 at 8:37 pm | Permalink | Reply

     ALL Fire and Ventilation systems are connected to computer systems. It’s simply not possible to control those complex systems without computers. And computers are only as good as teh people that program them- GIGO.

     As to why there weren’t Manual systems- that’s irrelevant. Manual systems are for a real emergency- power goes down or giant explosion takes out half the tunnel. Manual systems are generally not legally allowed to run a system in day-to-day use.

     By the way, I deal with safety systems daily in case you were wondering. They have uptimes of 99.99% usually. But they CAN still fail.

   • Poo2
     Posted 04/10/2012 at 12:05 am | Permalink | Reply

     Yeah fuck them – stupid people who drive cars deserve to have more traffic jams, and fuck ups – it gives them something to whine about.

     Manually operated fire suppression systems?

     The BIG lever on the wall – alternating on both sides of the tunnel every 250 meters….

     That would be just too fucking easy – better have computer only systems…..

     “Oooooppps BIG CRASH…. Ooooooooppppps the power has gone out…. Oooooooooooooooopppps the stand by generators have not been serviced, started or refueled in 5 years……..

     Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww all the people burning to death – good thing someone else has the contract, who has the contract, who has the contract, who has the contract…..”

6. Michael Wyres
   Posted 04/10/2012 at 9:13 am | Permalink | Reply

   Can you spell “botched overnight software upgrade” boys and girls?

   Given the time frames, this reeks of somebody screwing up some planned overnight works. It happens. And it will happen again.

   [/cynicism]

   • Level380
     Posted 05/10/2012 at 10:52 am | Permalink | Reply

     *Cough* core switch upgrade, no backup *Cough*

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